He Said, She Said – Recaps For Game 5

Scouts: This game was not supposed to go down like that. With Kershaw and Keuchel on the bump, it should have been a two hour, 1-0 game. Instead, the skys parted, the ground opened, and all hell broke loose. 25 fucking runs were scored. If there ever was a time to curse, last night’s game was it. It was pure insanity. I don’t even know how to recap a game like this. Where do I even begin? I could write for 12 pages giving you a play by play break down. There simply is too much lunacy.

After the Dodgers scored three in the first to open the game, I thought to myself, “Whelp, this one’s done. I mean for sure, three was more than enough for Kershaw, the greatest pitcher of his generation, in a crucial game 5.” Just no way to recover right? Right? That was until a wild 4th inning, capped by a two run homer by Yuli Gurriel tied the game up. Little did we know at the time, this was only the beginning. It was the first of 7 total home-runs hit, most of them in the last few innings. But this was the one that made everyone stand up and realize, that we suddenly have a ballgame. Kershaw immediately looked human. And very hittable. By this point, Dallas Keuchel was already run out of the game, and Kershaw would be quickly following. Neither pitcher will want to cut out their box score for this one and hang on the refrigerator.

That’s not to say any of the relief pitchers would do the same either. Collin McHugh lasted 2 innings, and gave up 3 runs. Brad Peacock gave up 2 runs and 3 hits in 1.1. Chris Devenski allowed 3 hits and 3 runs in 1.1. Brandon Morrow had probably the worst night, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits, including two home-runs without recording a single out. To say last night was a hitters wet dream would be an understatement.

As we went into the 7th and the Dodgers took a 1 run lead, I started to come to the conclusion that no lead would be safe in this game. Nothing would be certain. Even when the Astros immediately took a 3 run lead in the bottom of the frame off homers by George Springer and Carlos Correa (with a Jose Altuve RBI double sandwiched in between), I just didn’t trust the Dodgers not to come back.

And then Yasiel Puig happened. Puig who hadn’t been hitting all series, finally busted out in the top of the 9th smacking a low and away breaking ball with one hand into the left field bleachers. With ONE FUCKING HAND! Seriously if you were watching this shit in a movie you would have gotten up and walked out for being too damn unbelievable. I can just see people ranting and raving on Rotten Tomatoes about how this would never happen in real life.

So of course Chris Taylor singled three batters later to tie the game and give us the opportunity to go into extra innings. I mean, you just KNEW that was going to happen right? I man how could a game like this end without yet another improbable come back?

At this point, it was approximately 5am. What should have been a 2 hour game, that of course started at 8pm EST (So as not to conflict with Fox’s true love FOOTBALL!!!!), was now going on four and a half or so hours. It’s just gotten ridiculous. At this point I’m trying to wrap my head around what I’m seeing. I’m trying to figure out what the hell I’m going to write Monday morning. I’m trying to figure out if there’s any way I can be “sick” and not go in since I’m faced with approximately 15 minutes of sleep. I’m trying to figure out if this is the best World Series game of all time. I’m trying to figure out if this game will ever end. And mostly I’m just praying that someone, scored and someone gets three outs and this amazing, wonderful game can finally end. It’s a very strange feeling to love a moment so much, but also really, really want to move on to the next one.

Then with Kenley Janson pitching in the bottom of the 10th, all my prayers were answered and Alex Bregman singled in the winning run following a hit batter and a walk. The game was finally over. Houston as a city erupted in glee. And I was finally able to shut my computer down and try to get a little bit of sleep. Now the only thing I’m trying to figure out is what the hell is going to happen next. We know we are headed back to LA after a day off. A day off that both teams are in dire need of after completely depleting their bullpens. A day to recover from the roller coaster of emotion, full of glee and sorrow. At this point, I don’t know what will happen next. I just know I can’t wait to find out.

23 thoughts on “He Said, She Said – Recaps For Game 5”

I am in the position of really liking the result without being too crazy about the game.

It was ironic that that insane slugfest was won (with two outs) by a hit batsman, a walk, a pinch runner for the lead runner, and a shallow single to left-center. It was like we went into bizarro world for seven innings and exited into baseball at the very end.

Two to win one for the Astros, with Verlander to start. Wish I could say I was more confident than I am.

My friends (I like to think of you as friends, even though I’ve never met any of you), I have failed you…

I pledged last week after Game 2 that I would sleep when I was dead, but I must confess that I fell asleep during last night’s fever dream of a game; I wanna say it was around the time that Peacock was being removed by Hinch, but I’m not sure what’s real and what’s not anymore.

That’s alright. I believe the score was 7 – 7 when my wakening reality transitioned to a non conscious one. If any of you notice my absence from the latter part of a game chat thread you might look at each other and say quietly “looks like the old poop is asleep”. If anyone decides to gently drape a blanket over me I won’t be angry.

I’m expecting a run on hyperbaric oxygen chambers as both teams try to squeeze a few innings more out of totally depleted and abused bull pens.

I’m hoping Verlander doesn’t get too keyed up early and try to throw 100 from the get go like the 2012 All Star game. This is the game that could cement JV as a HoF pitcher, hopefully he is up to the challenge.

If Hill is throwing decent will Roberts let him go into the 3rd time through the order this time? Roberts managed himself into a corner in game 2 pulling Hill after just 4 innings and I think that started the strain on the Dodgers’ pen.

I think Roberts has overmanaged through the series because he knew he had a relief pitcher advantage. At this point that advantage has evaporated with a bunch of tired arms. I could see him taking a different approach. But I don’t know.

Back when I was a kid, they had a different thing about baseball. They used to have guys called “pitchers.” They tried to throw the ball past a batter to where he couldn’t hit it. They had a clever term for it. They called it “getting an out.”

Funny the things you remember from when you were young. Obviously, they don’t do that anymore.

My favorite part about this World Series is that none of the players are having a hard time expressing themselves. And guess what? The world is not burning down around us. At least not because of this. No one’s throwing at anyone’s head for having the gall to get excited when a big play is made. People are slapping high-fives and hugging on the field and literally jumping up and down for joy. And it’s fucking fantastic. I love it. It gets me hyped watching them hyped. I hope we get more of this as the older generation who has to be 100% business 100% of the time gets phased out.

Very much agree with you on this aspect and enjoying it too, Scout. In a curious contra, though, I offer Yasiel Puig’s dinger late in Game 2. Rather than the expected emotion-charged bat flip, he took a couple of steps while watching the ball fly out of the park, then calmly and carefully placed his bat on the ground before continuing his home run trot. At times in this Series, and especially with his much more cautious approach at the plate (almost non-existent first pitch swinging), he’s looking much more like one of ‘the older generation who has to be 100% business 100% of the time’.

Thanks to excessive winds, our power went out and came back on about as often as HR’s were hit last night. The cable would come back up in time for us to wonder what the hell just happened and we switched to audio for a bit. I absolutely left the room a couple of times so the Astros would score — most notably when I lay in bed trying to get a network connection on my phone while the rebooting WiFi interfered and BREGMAN WALKED IT OFF!!!!!!

I missed seeing the game ‘live’ due to being 100 miles away at the time, recumbent in a dentist’s chair while he searched for, found, and extracted the many AU$100 bills that I had secretly hidden among my molars. Thankfully, his liberal application of anaesthetic meant minimal pain in the jaw, but my hip pocket was real sore on the ride home.

I’d set everything to record the game for later viewing pleasure thinking 4.5 hours would be enough based on their recent history (wrongly as it turned out), but that only got me to the 8th. As much as I’m a traditionalist in baseball terms, and will always be very happy to watch a 1-0 pitcher’s duel, Game 5 was something else. The number of multi-run comebacks, the knock-down, drag-out nature of the fight, the emotion displayed all round by both teams… Wow, what a game!

Maybe Justin Verlander and Rich Hill will bring their ‘A’ games, go the full nine innings, and we’ll get that duel. If not, I’m doubtful there’s anybody left in either bullpen that could be trusted to get three outs without giving up a homer or two. Is it still hot in LA?